Your Billing System Features Checklist: What You Should Shop For

You go to the grocery store with your shopping list in your hand. On it are all of the things that you need for your meals for the next week and maybe a few treats. As you shop, you browse through the aisles and weigh your options. The same process should happen when you are searching for a billing system for your business. Decide which ones are “needs” and which ones are “wants”. After choosing which features you need from your billing system, you will be able to choose the right billing system for your business.

Here are a few of the different features for sale.

Customer Communication

Some billing systems include customer relations tools. Do you want your billing system to allow you to communicate with your customers? These types of features allow you to send emails to remind your customers their bill is due next week or contact overdue customers when they have late, outstanding balances.

Accounting System Integration

If your business uses an accounting system, such as Sage Pro or Quickbooks, you may want to consider using a system that allows for integration between the two systems. With integration, you can easily keep track of your paid and unpaid invoices. Your accounting department will love not having to manually and individually input each entry.

Electronic Invoicing

Electronic invoicing is a feature that has many different benefits. E-invoicing , as it is affectionately nicknamed, saves your business money on traditional paper invoicing. Not only does your company cut back on material costs, but your employees wills save the time that they usually spend preparing these statements.

Brand customization

Depending on the type of billing system you choose, your company may have the ability to promote your brand and adapt the system with your company’s logo and color scheme. Systems with electronic invoicing may also allow you to upload or create a custom invoice with your company’s visual and messaging brand standards applied.

Security

Security is one of the most important features that customers and businesses look for in a billing system. The all encompassing security feature you do not want to go without is PCI compliance. To be PCI compliant, a system must meet all the security standards set by the PRCI SSC (Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council). If your business is primarily B2B versus B2C, you may want to consider Level 3 Processing, as well.

Software Choices

When choosing your billing solution, you also need to consider if you want to use a web-based software or traditional software. Web-based software is convenient because you usually don’t have to run software updates; they are done automatically. With traditional software, you have to manually run software updates to your system.

These are the major billing system features and their benefits. Use the features above as a checklist to see which ones you need in a billing system for your business. Once you have decided which features are must-haves versus perks, you can begin to shop for the perfect solution.

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